Milk, tummy aches and fever?

[Sunny]

Hello all,

I am looking for some advice please.

My daughter has had a milk intolerance since she was about 4, with the main symptoms being eczema, runny tummy and tummy ache if she eats too much milk products. The eczema cleared up some years ago thank goodness.

However, the runny tummy's and tummy ache hasn't. Last winter and now this winter she has been coming down with recurrent tummy aches, mild diarrhoea and fevers. Last year our GP sent her to hospital with a suspected appendicitis, but it was ruled out. Eventually, in discussion with my GP, we decided to go milk free for a while and see if her tummy settled. It did and when we started to introduce milk again she seemed to be mostly OK. She was fine for most of the summer, but as the winter started again, the tummy aches and fevers have come back. Sometimes she has fevers without any tummy ache, and to be fair I think she has had a fair few of the usual winter bugs.

We have just decided to start a restricted milk diet... I send her to school 3 days a week with a milk free packed lunch and we have very little dairy at home anyway. But this weekend she had a party sleepover - lots of dairy treats, and now she has tummy ache, a high fever again.

Our GP doesn't really have any answers to these recurrent fevers, but she has lost a lot of time from school this year. (she is 10) .

When I type in 'recurrent tummy aches, fever, and diarrhoea' into the search engine, Crohn's came up, and some people link Crohn's to milk intolerance too.

I have made another appointment to see our GP and I am thinking of asking him for a referral to a specialist. I am just at the stage of trying to find out as much as possible, so I am armed with questions and have some back ground knowledge before we make any big decisions.

I would like to know how other people became aware of their Crohn's condition, and would also be interested if anyone has come across the sort of symptoms my daughter has before or has any idea's on what this could be. Also, if you think her symptoms sound nothing like Crohn's, please let me know, because that would be very helpful to know too!

Many thanks, Sunny

 

[Guest]

hi Sunny, welcome to the forum

so sorry to hear your little girl has these recurrent symptoms, it's worrying enough when it's us, adults, going through it, but watching your child be ill is even worse..

i think you're on the right track with wanting to get her looked at by a specialist - it has been going on a long time now, and if nothing else, you might at least get some reassurance that it isn't IBD - i hope it isn't.

milk intolerance is something i am just beginning to learn firsthand about - i seem to have developed lactose intolerance very recently, and i'm now on a strict lactose-free diet. i'm not finding it that difficult to maintain, although it's a little boring and repetetive... not sure if you're in the UK or not, but our main supermarkets here (Sainsburys, Tescos etc) stock a lot of 'free-from' goods, including snacks that kids like, and basics such as mayo, ketchup, food sauces etc.. i'm using soya milk in tea, coconut milk in coffee, and lactose-free cheese & cream cheese.

since starting this regime, i have felt tons better - i had most of the symptoms you describe your little girl having, even the low-grade fever, and they all stopped as soon as i kicked milk out of my diet.

it is true that a lot of Crohn's sufferers develop lactose intolerance, but i suspect there are just as many, if not more, non-IBD people out there who can't tolerate it too.. so it doesn't necessarily mean your daughter has Crohn's.

i would be tempted, if she were my little girl, to do the total lactose free diet, and to see a GI at least once, & see what he/she advises.

let us know how things go, and good luck!

 

[Sunny]

Thanks dingbat ~ we're in the UK too!

We might go fully dairy free again to see if her tummy settles, but it makes no sense to me that she gets these frequent fevers with the tummy ache episodes. The tummy ache is always focused on her right hand side, which is why the doctor suspected an appendicitis last year. It gets more and less intense through the day, but she's rarely doubled over with it. If it wasn't for the fever, I think we could easily manage it with Calpol and send her to school!

We'll be seeing the GP again soon, so I'll discuss a specialist referral then.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Hi Sunny, welcome to the forum. I haven't yet been diagnosed myself but my doctors think it's probably IBD. I've been ill with this since Oct 2009, and I've been lactose intolerant for over 10 years now, since my early twenties. My lactose intolerance seems to have become a bit worse since I developed this mystery gut illness - in the past, I could eat some dairy as long as I took some of those lactose enzyme digestive pills along with it. But now, even with the enzyme pills, I get more pain, bloating, diarrhea, etc when I eat dairy, so I've cut it out of my diet.

Fortunately, there are a lot of tasty alternatives. Dingbat listed a few, and it's probably best if your daughter sample different types to see which ones she likes and which ones she tolerates best. There's soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, rice milk. Likewise, there are cheeses and other "dairy" products available made from things like soy, rice, almond, etc. My personal favorites are almond milk, goat cheese (it doesn't affect me the way cow-based dairy products do), and coconut milk yogurts.

Sorry, that was kind of long, but my point is - if you do decide to cut dairy entirely out of her diet, she'll still have plenty of alternatives that hopefully won't cause her any pain or other problems. Good luck, and I hope she doesn't have IBD!

 

[Sunny]

Thanks Cat-a-Tonic. We might try it. I'm not sure if and how my daughter's sensitivity fit's into this problems with her tummy and the fevers, but it's interesting that milk intolerance doesn't seem to be too uncommon with IBD.

Good luck with your treatment for IBD.

 

[Sunny]

Just to say thank you to everyone on this tread for your replies and to let you know that I finally discovered what was wrong with my daughter. She is now under a rheumatologist who identified that she has a 'Periodic Fever Syndrome' and has put her on a medication that completely controls her fevers, the tummy aches, the aching muscles and all the other weird symptoms she was getting. She is now living a normal childhood again

Thank you for your support when I was going though a really tough patch and wishing you and your children all the best living with this challenging condition, Kind regards Sarah